


Adorned

by barbaricyawp



Series: Torture Tuesday [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Nipple Piercings, Other, Piercings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-01 13:47:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18801568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barbaricyawp/pseuds/barbaricyawp
Summary: Every time the asset executes a target, he is given a gift.





	1. Chapter 1

He can’t make sense of why they do it, just that each time the asset successfully executes a target, his handlers stamp a piece of metal through him. 

First, they adorn his left ear. For the death of an elderly man and his wife in Berlin, they hook the soft lobe of the asset’s ears twice with silver hoops. The asset touches his fingers against the metal, moved by the gesture.

He has never been given a gift. 

An assassination mission in Zimbabwe goes poorly, or at least not as neatly as instructed. The asset accidentally shoots the target in the throat, rather than between the eyes as he was instructed. The man gurgled to death on the street.

They still pierce the asset, but the process is less surgical.

The asset’s handler doesn’t bother to sterilize the post of an earring before shoving it through the asset’s cartilage. He has to twist the post back and forth, back and forth in order to get it all the way through the asset’s ear.

For a point of entry so small, the asset is surprised by how much this hurts.

He doesn’t wince. He doesn’t squirm. He asks for permission before wiping the blood from the shell of his ear.

—

Seven piercings rattle in each ear, an uncomfortable jumble under the press of the muzzle. The discomfort of these tokens doesn’t distract the asset. Each time a post digs into its skull, he’s reminded that his actions are valuable. Each time a hoop catches in his hair, he’s reminded that his handlers have given him a gift.

Occasionally, one of these fourteen piercings will get infected and his whole ear will swell, hot and painful. This, too, is a gift from HYDRA.

Also a gift: the singe of electricity through the metal when they send it to the chair for routine maintenance. The shocks already send his entire body into spasms, but when the electricity ricochets between the metal piercings in his ears, the skin singes. 

The asset burns.

—

Eventually, they run out of room in his ears.

The fifteenth piece of metal they jam through him is an innocuous hoop. Like the first two that they lanced through his earlobe. But this one isn’t silver. It’s golden.

On his way to the operating table, the asset’s eyes linger on the hoop. He has just accomplished a very important mission. A political leader that needed to be crushed under the fist of HYDRA.

This hoop is special.

The asset is instructed to sit on the table and remove his muzzle. He is then instructed to tilt his head back and keep his eyes open.

Without warning, his nose is flushed with rubbing alcohol which stings his eyes and sinuses. The asset doesn’t even blink.  
  
Next, they apply a clamp to the cartilage which separates his nostrils. It is an effort to breath evenly around this intrusion, but the asset makes do. 

A hollow needle passes through the septal cartilage. The asset’s eyes water, more surprised than in pain.

The golden hoop is attached to the new hole in the asset’s face. Once it is secure, he touches the metal hook lightly, fresh tears springing to his eyes. He thanks his handlers.

The asset is adorned. The asset is adored.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> requested by glitter-cake20, who realized the last drabble was missing something

Steve doesn’t ask Bucky many questions about his body. Not the arm, not the scars, not the row of punctures that dot each ear. Not any of it.

He figures that this is one way he can help his friend maintain his dignity. Maybe the only way.

Steve even manages to keep his mouth snapped shut when he catches Bucky getting changed for bed one night. Though he could guess that Bucky’s ears had been pierced, he’s surprised to see two metal bars lanced through each of Bucky’s nipples.

His  _nipples_. Jesus Christ.

Though Steve doesn’t say anything, Bucky catches his expression instantly. A serious expression drops down over his handsome face. 

Quietly, Bucky explains, “I don’t know how to take them out.”

—

The asset is strapped to the table for this reward. He has just successfully planted two pipe bombs, and they have something special planned to celebrate his victory.

They blindfold the asset, promising that the surprise will be worth it. As a result, the asset is adrift in the darkness when the first bar sears through his left pectoral.

He’s still reeling from the burn and shock when they pinch his right nipple and puncture another bar through it. It’s not pain so much as sensitivity. Even air feels like a hot pressure against the skin. When he breathes, he can feel the bars shift against–no  _inside–_ the tender flesh.

“Thank you,” the asset gasps nonetheless, grateful for the gift of pain.

They unwrap the asset’s eyes and when he looks down, a single chain connects the two piercings. His chest is pink all over, but the adornment looks…nice against the flush. Strange, but nice.

A doctor lifts this chain for the asset to hold between his teeth while she dabs the blood from his areola. When she’s finished, the doctor looks over her work. As if on a whim, she flicks the chain. The asset winces at the twinge and everyone observing in the room laughs.

“Thank you,” he murmurs around the chain, unsure what else to say.

—

“Do you want them out?” Steve asks, careful. “They don’t look…comfortable.”

Bucky shakes his head and pulls his shirt down. Now that Steve knows they are there, he can see the outline of the metal through the white fabric.

“I’ll leave them in,” Bucky says, a wry smile easing onto his face. “Especially if they’re going to make you blush like that.”

Steve blushes deeper and shoves him away.


End file.
